hi old smoker and everyone, i would advise not to trim any leaves unless there dieing, the plants fan leaves are there to absorb the energys from the light, buds will grow ok under them, yes buds need light, but so do the leaves, remember, your growing buds on a plant, not plants on a bud, without leaves your plants only source of energy is from the water and feed that you give it, it needs that light bro, dont be conserned that there blocking light to those lower buds, everybody that grows should know that buds dont realy put on too much mass and resin build up untill the last wekk or so anyway, and thats when the leaves die off natrauly, if you got it nearly right then things will happen natrauly, sure you can prune the odd leef here and there, but if you get a bit happy with you knife then be carefull peeps, you can premote male jender on a female plant if ya shock her to much, if they concern you to much then tie them, but dont stop them from getting light also, if you find at the end of ya grow that you got to much leaves, then think about another plant, or breed into your plant a gene that premotes less leaf on a plant, its not that difficult, just takes a bit of time bro, be luckey